Brave
by Jenna-Lousie
Summary: Part of my Song-Fic series, based on the song Brave by Sara Bareilles. A Jasmine Thomas/Vanessa Woodfield fic set when Jasmine is released from prison
1. Chapter 1

It hadn't taken long for Jasmine and Debbie to rebuild their relationship when Jasmine had returned from prison. Of course Debbie was angry with her for saying she wasn't coming back but she eventually forgave her and even began to understand why she did it. However, as always, it didn't take long for their newly rekindled relationship to collapse as Jasmine learnt of Debbie and Andy's secret relationship. It was quickly revealed that Jasmine had already been out of prison for a week when Debbie had decided to sleep with her old ex-boyfriend Andy Sugden.

"What the hell were you doing with Andy?" Jasmine snapped as Debbie walked through the door.  
Debbie stopped quickly in her stride and looked up at her. "What do you mean? Jas do you seriously think I'd sleep with that loser again?"  
"Tell me now. Did you sleep with him or not?" Jasmine retorted sharply.  
"Yes Jas I did, but it was one time and I-" There wasn't time for Debbie to say anything else before Jasmine slapped her and stormed out in a rage.

It seemed odd for Jasmine to take refuge in the local pub, but when you're living with the person you were arguing with it's hard to find any place that is even remotely private. Another odd thing was that instead of acting like she usually did when she was upset, keeping to herself and blocking everyone out, Jasmine felt herself strangely drawn to the blonde woman sat a few seats away from her. What was a woman like her doing drinking alone on a Friday night? Surely she had something better to do.

"Can I help you?" The woman asked her.  
Shit, Jasmine thought, she'd caught her staring at her. "Sorry, just day dreaming."She said quickly.  
"Don't worry about it. I do it too, Rhona goes mad at me for it." She replied cheerfully. "I'm Vanessa by the way, you?"  
"I'm Jasmine, Jasmine Thomas." She replied quietly. She had to be careful, God knows what kind of stories had been told about her whilst she was away. She didn't want to scare her away.  
"Oh you're… right… okay. I thought you were new around here. Then again I'm still pretty new myself."  
Well done Jasmine, she said to herself, she's probably thinking of running away now.

Just as the awkward silence had began to settle between them Rhona walked through the door and sat herself down in the seat between Vanessa and Jasmine.  
Thank God for that, Vanessa thought to herself. "Did Paddy hold you up again?"  
"Yeah he kept going on about how I hadn't fed Leo yet, I thought he was at least capable of that." Rhona replied and got her purse out to buy a drink.  
"Well that's men for you." Vanessa replied and finished her drink off. "I'll have another one as well please Chas."

Jasmine sighed, everyone seemed to ignore her once they realised who she was. You deserve it for what you did, she scolded herself inside her head. She had always known that now she had been to prison it would be harder to make friends, especially in Emmerdale where everybody knew her, but she didn't think they would know her just by her name. For the rest of the night she tried to ignore all thoughts of her conversation with Vanessa that came to her.


	2. Chapter 2

Even though she knew what Jasmine had done, Vanessa still found herself wondering about her. She was a killer, the stories she had been told almost made it sound like she'd always had it in for Shane. Yet now she had met her she knew those stories couldn't be true. how could someone so quiet, so seemingly innocent want to do that to someone? It couldn't be true, she was certain of it.

A few days later after their first meeting Vanessa spotted Jasmine sitting in the corner of the cafe. She quickly paid for her coffee and sat opposite her. Jasmine looked up from her book for a moment as she sat down.  
"Look, about before, I just wanted to say sorry." Vanessa said to her as an attempt to her get attention.  
"Don't worry about it."muttered Jasmine, refusing to look up from her book.  
"It's just that I've heard a lot about you and I didn't know what else to say." Vanessa continued.  
"I bet you didn't." she replied, still avoiding looking at her.  
Vanessa sighed, she was trying her best but it didn't seem like it would work. "I just want to say sorry."  
"You really don't need to." Jasmine sighed and looked up at last. "I know you're just trying to be nice, but you don't want to be seen with someone like me."

Jasmine looked back down at her book. In all honesty, she felt sorry for Vanessa, she seemed like she genuinely wanted to apologise, but Jasmine knew that it wouldn't last long. She'd get sick of her eventually, be ashamed to be seen talking to her. After all, no one wants to be associated with a killer.

"Not everyone around here hates you, you know." Vanessa said quietly. "In fact, I don't think many people do at all."  
"And how would you know?" replied Jasmine, dryly.  
"Nobody thinks you're evil, we all know why you did it." Vanessa insisted, if there was one thing she couldn't stand it was people not liking her. As bad as it sounds, she was determined to get Jasmine on side no matter what it took.

Part of Jasmine wanted to believe what Vanessa was telling her, maybe they didn't hate her after all. But there was a part of her that kept insisting that they did, that they all thought she was evil. As far as Jasmine was aware she knew they all hated her. She knew what kind of stories had been told about her and she knew that people believed them. Vanessa was just trying to be nice because she pitied her, nothing more.

"I need to go." Jasmine said quietly as she put her book back into her bag and walked off.  
"I'll see you around then." muttered Vanessa as she watched her walked out.

Just a few hours later Vanessa found another opportunity to try and talk to Jasmine, although it possibly wasn't the smartest way to attempt to get her to talk. As she saw Jasmine walk out of the local shop, she quickly looked down at the floor and began walking towards her. Intentionally, she bumped into her and looked up.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." Vanessa said as casually as she could manage.  
"Don't worry about it." Jasmine muttered and tried to rush off as Vanessa placed a hand on her shoulder.  
"Look, what is it with you?" sighed Vanessa. "Why are you so against people trying to talk to you?"  
Jasmine rolled her eyes and turned around to face her. "Maybe I just like being alone, ever considered that?"  
"And maybe some of us just want to help you." replied Vanessa sharply. "You are so defensive about everything and I just don't understand why. We all know what you did so why bother hiding it? What's the point?"  
"What else do you expect me to do? Be proud that I'm a killer?" Jasmine snapped suddenly. "Stop pretending that you know me because you really don't."

No matter what she tried it seemed that Jasmine was determined to block out anyone who attempted to be kind to her. This was something that just didn't seem to make sense to Vanessa, if you'd been locked up for four years without seeing any of your friends or family surely you'd be welcoming anyone who tried to talk to you. Then again, how could someone who had never been in Jasmine's situation ever even begin to comprehend why she was acting like this? It seemed impossible to Jasmine that anyone would ever understand her like that again.

"You're right I don't know, but how can I when you won't even talk to me?" Vanessa said to her calmly. Despite Jasmine's slight anger she still felt like she was getting somewhere, after all at least they were having a proper conversation.  
Why won't she just leave me alone? Jasmine thought to herself. "Look Vanessa, I don't need your help or your pity, okay?"  
"Who said anything about pity? Maybe I just want to help someone out, is there something wrong with that?" She said to Jasmine. "There must be some way to get through to her." Vanessa muttered quietly. "What happened between you and Debbie?"  
Jasmine glared at her. "That's none of your business."  
"I'm not judging you about it, don't worry. I'm just curious." She said cautiously.  
"I left her because she was sleeping with Andy." Jasmine admitted quietly and shrugged. "I should have expected it, I told her to move on."  
"Wait, this was once you'd got back as well? Why would she do that?"  
"I don't know, probably because he's not a killer and I am." Jasmine sighed and looked at the floor.  
Vanessa frowned slightly. "Do you ever think about anything else? That's all you ever seem to talk about."

Of course it was all Jasmine thought about. Memories of that night had plagued her mind every day for the past four years. No matter how much she tried to distract herself with any means she could it was unavoidable, she would find her mind still being plagued with thoughts of Shane Doyle. It was even worse at night when she couldn't do anything apart from lay there and let the traumatic events play out continually in her head, only rarely stopping to play memories from her years in prison to have their turn.

She knew this wasn't fair on Vanessa, but how could she let someone trust her again after what she'd done? What if it happened again? Jasmine had seen a side of herself that night that she didn't even know existed. Once she'd began to hit him she didn't want to stop, it was like something- someone- else inside of her had taken over. It was like she wasn't herself anymore. That would be enough to make anyone scared of themselves.

"If they have decided to release you then you can't be evil, otherwise you would have been in there for life. You need to stop being so worried about everything and start to move on." Vanessa said softly and kept her eyes on her.  
"It's not that easy." sighed Jasmine as she looked at the floor again. "I'm trying but it doesn't happen overnight."  
"Maybe it would be easier if you let people help you out." Slowly, Vanessa moved towards Jasmine. Although, she had to be careful, it had taken a lot to even get to this stage. If she ruined it now it would have all have been for nothing.

As much as Jasmine hated to admit it, she hadn't wanted to refuse help for this long. In all honesty, she had secretly been hoping that Vanessa wouldn't give up from the very start. She was right, Jasmine did need someone. She had Ashley but he was no good, Laurel had moved on and now she was with Marlon, and then the other other person that she could consider would be Debbie but even Jasmine knew that it was no use to go back to her now.

"Fine. I give in. You've beaten me. I will let you help me." Jasmine said eventually and met Vanessa's eyes for the first time.  
"So we're mates then?" Vanessa asked her as a smile crept onto her face.  
Jasmine rolled her eyes at Vanessa's obvious excitement. "Yes, we're mates."

For the first time since she had returned to Emmerdale, Jasmine knew for sure that there was someone there for her and it was the best thing to happen to her for years.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, you're trying to tell me that you got with a complete creep because you wanted information? As stupid as it was, I have to admit it was pretty impressive." Vanessa said cheerfully as Jasmine finished telling her the complete story of Shane.

It had been almost four months since Jasmine had returned from prison and two months since she had fallen out with Debbie. Despite the fact that Jasmine was still reluctant to completely let Vanessa in, each day she would open up a little bit more and Vanessa would see another small piece of the fascinating, new girl.

"Impressive or stupid?" Jasmine laughed slightly, picking up her coffee. "Throwing away your dreams for a stupid front-page report in the local paper, seems pretty stupid to me." she brushed her hair behind her ears and pushed all memories of Shane aside.  
"Don't say it like that, yes you made a mistake, but you've pulled yourself up and it's not like you're doing as badly as you could be. I mean, you have a roof over your head, and you have friends and family. You're only 24, you still have your whole life ahead of you, think of everything that you can still do."  
"If you say so."

A ringing came from Jasmine's bag and she went to pick up her phone, only to find Vanessa's hand stopping her. "What? Come on, I need to see who it is."  
"We both know who it is, and we both know that you don't need to answer to her anymore. Jasmine, she's just trying to wind you up, it'll just be another phone call about how she meant to ring Andy but she ends up gloating to you anyway." Vanessa pulled her hand away slowly. "Come on, we're having fun anyway, she'll only ruin it."

Over the past few weeks Debbie had become more and more annoying. She didn't expect Jasmine to be able to survive without her, and she especially didn't expect her to be able to make friends. Even after everything she found herself jealous of Jasmine and her ability to make people like her even though she was a killer. This only led to attempts of trying to make Jasmine snap and undo all the work that Vanessa had spent months doing to bring her out of her shell.

"Okay fine, you win. I will not answer my phone but if that turns out to be something serious then I swear you are in trouble."  
"In that case I accept full responsibility." Vanessa smiled and picked up her bag. Right, I need to get off to work or Rhona will kill me. I'll catch up with you tonight, bottle of wine at mine? And remember, don't let her get to you."  
"Yes mother." Jasmine rolled her eyes sarcastically and put her coffee down. "See you later."

"Who rattled your cage?" Debbie smirked as she walked past Jasmine, who had picked up her phone.  
"Oh piss off Debbie. I know what you're trying to do to me and I don't care. In fact, I have moved on from you, I don't need you anymore!" her hands shook hard as she put her phone away and turned to face Debbie. "You have it so much better than me so I don't get why you have to remind me of that every single minute of every day! Grow up, we're not teenagers anymore!"  
"I'm not the jealous one and you know it. You want me more than ever." she moved closer to Jasmine and forced her into the corner. "Too bad I've moved on. Bye Jas." Debbie smiled victoriously and walked off.


End file.
